“Gloria,” Dallion said beneath his breath. “So, this is the test… I have to defeat you and everything you throw at me?”

There was no indication that there was anyone else in the mansion. However, the awakened realms held more than just people or echoes. Any object or building could suddenly change from here, transforming into a guardian to fight on Gloria’s behalf.

Come to think of it, it wasn’t only people that Dallion had left behind, there were guardians as well. Dallion had no idea what most of them looked like, but he had seen the well, as well as the village guardian, to know they were tough to defeat.

“Fight me?” the echo of Gloria asked, amused. “That defeats the purpose. Problems aren’t just something you can punch away. You have to get to the core. If you can’t do that, you’re only fooling yourself that you’re making progress.”

No fighting? That was new. It also sounded easier than he thought.

“Actually, what you do is up to you entirely,” Gloria said.

“What do you mean?”

As Dallion voiced the question, the vibration in his voice became visible. This was the first time he had seen anything of the sort, even while using his music skills. Like a blade, the vibration shattered part of Gloria’s emotions.

MINOR HIT

A red rectangle appeared as Gloria lost five percent of her health.

“If words can kill, they usually will,” Gloria said, the inkling of a tear forming in the corner of her left eye. “In the awakened realms, at least.”

This was the challenge? Anything Dallion said could potentially cause harm. The first thing Dallion thought of was to remain silent and not do anything. That was also risky. What if silence always was capable of hurting as well?

“You can do and say anything you want to,” Gloria walked closer to him. “That is precisely what the point is. You can say things you know that would hurt me or you can remain silent and hope that doesn’t. You still have to answer my questions, though.”

Dallion remained petrified. He didn’t expect this in the least. If this was a logical puzzle, he needed time to think about it. There had to be a solution to this. Fighting was out of the question… maybe running away was the option? If he wasn’t nearby, it wouldn’t matter if he said something to hurt Gloria or not.

Bad idea, Gen said. Running away is what got you here in the first place.

“Do you love me, Dal?” Gloria asked. “Did you ever? Or am I just a prop to occupy your time?”

Dallion took a step back. He could answer, but that would certainly cause harm. In an act of desperation, Dallion split, creating another instance of himself. In one of the instances, he remained silent, while in the other he said that he wasn’t sure.

The words of that instant rang through the air, shattering a lot of Gloria’s internal feelings and taking thirty percent of her life with them.

Nope, Dallion reverted to the silent instance.

High flight response had kicked in, desperately trying to avoid the confrontation. It was just like back on Earth. Things with Dallion’s first steady girlfriend hadn’t turned out that good. There had been signs that things weren’t working out, but Dallion had persisted, fearing the breakup that he preferred to put up with the things he didn’t like while not doing the things his girlfriend hated. At one point, it had gotten so bad that he secretly hoped that she would just leave and save him the trouble of dealing with formalizing the breakup. As it happened, she did, and while that had granted him momentary relief, the sadness of loss crept in a week later.

“You’re just my fears,” Dallion said firmly in an instance of himself. In his mind, he felt that if he could admit the truth and face up to it, all would—

MEDIUM HIT!

Dealt Damage is increased by 50%

The red rectangle appeared mercilessly in both instances.

“What?”

“Sometimes thoughts can hurt as well.” A tear trickled down Gloria’s cheek. She was still smiling, though, making the whole scene all the more painful for Dallion. “Why is it so difficult to give an answer?”

It was a cliché to say that giving an answer would hurt Dallion more than it would hurt her, but it happened to be true. A while back, before his decision to face the village chief, Dallion had said he was greedy, and he wanted to keep all his friends. That was something he meant in the very literal sense in the world. Defeating an obvious enemy was far easier and less painful than having to do something that would make friends go away. Often they still did, but in Dallion’s mind they also hadn’t. It was a sort of Schrodinger’s cat situation which provided him with just enough security to keep him from hurting.

MINOR WOUND

Your health has been decreased by 5%

The moment the rectangle appeared, Dallion knew the reason for it. Thoughts were just concepts and in his awakened realm, they too had physical form. In this case they were invisible, unavoidable daggers that he pinned in himself. This was definitely going to be a “fun challenge.”

“You know I can’t answer you,” Dallion said. To his surprise, no further rectangles appeared. “It would be easy to lie or to use music to pass the trial, but I won’t. That’s not the point of this.”

“Are you sure it’ll work?” Gloria tilted her head. “As I said, you’re free to do anything you want. You can even fight me if you wish. If you really think I’m just an echo, then it should be an easy win for you. But you don’t think that, do you?”

Dallion looked straight into her eyes. Like the echo of his grandfather, she knew everything about Dallion that he himself knew about himself. Rather, she knew what he thought he knew about himself. If the fight with his “grandfather” had shown him something, it was that speculation also gained form in this realm.

“I’m not sure what to think,” Dallion lied.

“You’re lying.” Gloria slid her hand along his shoulder. “But it’s okay. I know the truth, and that’s something you can’t deny even to yourself.”

“And what truth would that be?” a familiar voice asked behind Dallion. Turning around, he saw the thing he feared the most in the current situation—Euryale.

The gorgon was dressed in her adventure outfit, as if to reinforce the contrast between her and Gloria: one was a princess—or the close equivalent of one—locked away in a castle like mansion; the other was a wilderness hunter. And Dallion didn’t want to hurt either of them.

In theory, Eury could be considered tough enough not to be harmed by a few words… at least in Dallion’s mind, but he still didn’t want to take the risk.

“What truth, Dal?” the gorgon pressed on. “Is there anything going on between you and this blondie?”

The insult match had just started. The only positive thing was that insults didn’t seem to cause damage. That could be considered as a semi-win of sorts.

“Hey, Eury.” Dallion smiled as best he could. “We’re from the same village. I’ve known Gloria and her brother for years.” He was very careful to add the word “brother in there” just to be on the same side.

MINOR HIT

A red rectangle appeared above Gloria. Clearly, she didn’t like the way she had been described.

“Actually, he gave me a ring,” Gloria said in gloating fashion, staring at the gorgon.

“Is that right?” the gorgon crossed her arms. “Care to elaborate on that, Dal?”

MINOR WOUND

Your health has been decreased by 5%

Not to be the bearer of bad news, dear boy, but you’re doing rather poorly, Nil said. This might be a good time for that unmistakable Dallion wit that you keep fawning.

Dallion wit… while true that it had helped Dallion on several occasions, the entire problem now was that he was Dallion. If he were someone else, things would have been much better. The urge to quick the challenge and leave it for another day became stronger. However, he wasn’t even sure that it would help either. If thoughts could cause harm, leaving them both could as well. Then again, at least he wouldn’t be there to see it happen.

MEDIUM HIT!

Dealt Damage is increased by 50%

Red rectangles appeared above both Eury and Gloria’s heads. So much for that idea.

“I care about both of you!” Dallion said as his stress grew. “Just in different ways.”

Both looked at each other. There were no red rectangles, no insults, just eagerness emanating from both of them, waiting to hear how he would continue.

If this were a game or puzzle, there would be one solution. However, it was closer to real life than any game. The feelings of the echoes were real, as were their reactions. There was no dialogue tree Dallion could navigate through, even if he used his splitting ability. What was the solution, though? Back on Earth it was said that the truth was the best solution—at least then Dallion wouldn’t have anything to be guilty of. But that wasn’t always true. Dallion had almost lost friendships because of telling the truth. There simply was no way of knowing.

“We were close with Gloria in Dherma because both of us wanted to break free from her grandfather’s rule,” Dallion went on. For a moment, he was tempted to add the cliché that he thought of her as a sister, but decided not to push his luck. “I didn’t think she’d come to Nerosal, not with her fear of cities. Not that I wasn’t glad to see her,” he quickly added. “Just surprised.”

There was a short moment of silence. So far, so good. Nothing bad had happened, and he was still given the option to talk. Dallion took a deep breath. It was all or nothing now.

“Gloria, this is Euryale,” he said slowly, as if hoping that stretching the words would make him calmer. “Eury is a thread-smith and a hunter. She made the armor I’m wearing and also helped me out on several occasions.” Dallion had to make another pause. His pulse had doubled at least. “She’s also…”

Two words. That was all he needed to say. On a purely objective level, it wasn’t supposed to be that difficult. He had already made sure there was no turning back, so he might go all the way. Still, what was the proper word to use? Girlfriend? Lover? Fiancé?

“She’s also my girlfriend,” he said at last and braced for rectangles.

MEDIUM HIT!

Dealt Damage is increased by 50%

A rectangle appeared above Gloria, as Dallion feared it would. Normally, this would be the point at which to consider the next action. For worse, Gloria didn’t give him such an option.

“Maybe,” the blonde said, bitterness replacing all other emotions in her. “I should have come to Nerosal sooner. I’m here now, though, and I plan to fix things.”

Bladebows appeared in Gloria’s hands and quickly pointed at Euryale. The action was fast, but Dallion turned out faster, jumping in the way of the bolts before they were fired.

“Shield,” Dallion shouted as Gloria pressed the triggers.

The shield extended instants before both projectiles hit it, bouncing off and pushing him backwards in the process. This was stronger than an attack should be. Either Gloria’s weapons were special, or this was another peculiarity of the leveling up trial.

“Good choice,” Euryale said, summoning her claw gauntlets. “You’re not even worth turning into a statue.”

Dallion got pushed away as the two women prepared to get into a fight.

On the bright side, you have two women fighting over you, Gen said.

Dallion didn’t even bother replying, quickly jumping to his feet. At this point, there was no doubt that the two echoes would fight until one of them was destroyed… and Dallion had no intention of letting it happen.